Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus, an information input method and a program. Particularly, the present invention relates to a display apparatus having an interface that enables high-speed input of characters or the like, and an information input method and a program using the display apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, a device that incorporates a touch panel capable of detecting the finger position has been used to enable high-speed sensory character input. For the character input using the touch panel, a software keyboard 90 shown in FIG. 11 is displayed on a display screen, for example. A user touches the display position of the character to be input on the keyboard with a finger. It is thereby possible to input a character without using a hardware keyboard. The character input without use of a hardware keyboard is particularly employed in mobile devices because it enhances portability and offers convenience.
On the other hand, in the above method, a part of the software keyboard is inevitably hidden by the user's finger at the time of input as shown in FIG. 11, and it is thus difficult to perform high-speed character input like touch typing. Further, although the character input with use of the hardware keyboard allows a user to sense that a character is input by the pressing of the touching finger, the use of the software keyboard causes the lack of such a feeling of input.
Various techniques have been proposed to address such an issue. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-183787, a software keyboard is displayed in the vicinity of an area to input a character (input screen). By reducing the distance between the software keyboard and the input screen, the moving distance of the user's line of sight is reduced, thereby improving the input speed.
Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-54589, only the home positions of in the QWERTY layout are displayed on a screen, and a user inputs characters by touching the software keyboard on the screen with fingers of both hands in the same manner as using a normal keyboard.